When we build a tailored Separately Managed Account for you, we will consider a mix of various investments to incorporate, so that we may construct what we believe is the best solution to achieve your goals while keeping total costs low for you, the investor. At Connors Investor Services, we have been managing our strategies in the form of Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) since 1974. Although managing each client’s account as a standalone is a much more time consuming process, as opposed to managing a mutual fund where investors pool their assets, we believe that the benefits of the SMA for the more affluent investor are too large to ignore. In our SMAs, every management decision in the account is made in your best interest because your investment track is the only one we are focused on.

This is our primary investment vehicle. A stock is a type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation’s assets and earnings. Common stock usually entitles the owner to vote at shareholders’ meetings and to receive dividends

We emphasize and utilize options to keep our clients “covered”. A stock option is a “privilege”, sold by one party to another that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) a stock at an agreed-upon price within a certain period or on a specific date. The seller of the option receives a premium payment for agreeing to sell his/her right to sell the stock. The premium payments generate extra income, which helps cushion portfolios during difficult markets.

We utilize ETFs on a limited basis and focus only on the largest offerings with the lowest fees. An ETF, or exchange traded fund, is a marketable security that tracks an index, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index fund. Unlike mutual funds, an ETF trades like a common stock on a stock exchange. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold.

An index option is a financial derivative that gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the value of an underlying index, such as the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500, at the stated exercise price on or before the expiration date of the option.

A bond is a debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (typically corporate or governmental) which borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or fixed interest rate. Bonds are used by companies, municipalities, states and sovereign governments to raise money and finance a variety of projects and activities. Owners of bonds are debtholders, or creditors, of the issuer.

We look forward to building you a portfolio that is tailored, transparent and tax sensitive.

TAILORED

SMA owners can customize their holdings by excluding certain securities or industries. A client may, for example, wish to screen for tobacco or defense stocks or desire us to hedge their stock holdings with some protective puts. In the end, we try to manage a portfolio that is the best fit for the investor’s needs, not our own.

TRANSPARENT

Although mutual funds offer the masses an affordable mechanism for achieving portfolio diversification with management expertise, often the investor is not certain what they own or how fees are calculated. At any point with an SMA, you will know what shares you actually own and have a cost basis for each position. Also, your fee will be clearly defined and you will see all trades that take place.

TAX-SENSITIVE

SMA holders pay taxes only on the capital gains they actually realize. By contrast, investors who hold mutual funds in their taxable accounts get hit with taxable distributions for transactions made within the fund, even if they didn’t sell any shares — and even if the fund itself ended the year at a loss.